ASA Adjudication on easyJet Airline Co Ltd

Ad

A poster, which appeared on an overground train, for easyJet had the headline "Who loves flying you to the place you actually booked?" Text in a box under the heading "Ryanair" stated ""Barcelona" = Girona "Paris" = Beauvais "Milan" = Bergamo "Venice" = Treviso". Further text in a heart under the heading "easyJet" stated "Barcelona = Barcelona Paris = Paris Milan = Milan Venice = Venice". Smaller text at the bottom of the ad stated "easyJet flies to: Barcelona El Prat Airport, Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly Airports, Venice Marco Polo Airport, Milan Malpensa and Milan Linate Airports."

Issue

Ryanair Ltd challenged whether:

1. the ad was misleading because it implied they would not fly you to the city you booked whereas their advertising and website made clear where they flew to. They pointed out that Beauvais, Bergamo and Treviso had been officially designated as airports for their corresponding cities by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and that they advertised Girona as "Girona (Barcelona)" and not "Barcelona (Girona)" in order to avoid confusion, and

2. the ad was denigratory because it suggested that Ryanair flew passengers to destinations different from the ones they had booked.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. & 2. easyJet said they did not dispute IATA designations but believed that customers were more interested in the actual proximity of airports to their destination cities. They said that they were trying to make the point that easyJet flies to primary airports and Ryanair, in many cases, to secondary airports which are often significantly further away from the city which they serve.

Assessment

1. Upheld

We acknowledged that easyJets intention was that the headline loves flying you to the place you actually booked?" and the text in the ad should collectively be interpreted as a comparative claim that the airports served by easyJet were significantly closer to their designated cities than those served by Ryanair. However, we were concerned that the ad could be interpreted as suggesting that when customers booked a Ryanair flight to one of the listed cities they would in some way be misled and instead be unwittingly flown to a more remote airport or even a different destination. Ryanair argued, and we understood, that their advertising made clear where they flew to. We also noted that, despite being further away from other airports which served those cities, Beauvais, Bergamo and Treviso were designated by IATA as airports for Paris, Milan and Venice respectively. We concluded that the ad implied that Ryanair did not fly passengers to the destination which they had booked which we considered was misleading.

With reference to the specific claim "Ryanair ... = Girona"; we noted Ryanairs assertion that they did not claim in their advertising that Girona was a designated airport for Barcelona and instead they advertised Girona as a destination in its own right, adding "Barcelona" in brackets. Because the claim implied that Ryanair advertised Girona as a Barcelona airport and because we understood this was not the case, we concluded the claim ... = Girona" was also misleading.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code Clauses 7.1 (Truthfulness) and 18.1 (Comparisons with identified competitors and/or their products).

2. Upheld

While we noted easyJets argument that the ad was merely a comparison between airport locations, we were concerned that by listing the airports to which Ryanair flew but only referring in much smaller print at the bottom of the ad to the ones to which easyJet flew and by not giving any data which readers might use to make an assessment of the facts, the ad did not achieve that end.

We considered the challenging tone of the headline "Who loves flying you to the place you actually booked?" combined with the implication that Ryanair misled customers and flew them to airports different to the ones to which they had booked was denigratory.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code Clause 20.1 (Denigration).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its current form. We advised easyJet to seek CAP Copy Advice when commissioning future campaigns.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)